Kerala - Kochi   

Beyond the taste difference

KOCHI: And when the festival ended it was not the taste that lingered, but the spirit. Held at Marine Drive Grounds, Aahara, the national ethnic food and cultural festival, did not just showcase different culinary talents. It was a demonstration of the cosmopolitan spirits that the city has in its veins.

“Tulu Brahmins said that it was the first time since they came here 150 years back that they could establish their identity here. Especially with the performance of Yakshagana here on Friday,” said A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish, District Collector.

The response was so overwhelming that the district administration is planning to repeat the fair in a grand scale next year. “Next year, we are planning to showcase cultural and historical legacies of each community,” Mr. Hanish said.

A lot of preparation has gone into the festival. “We have been discussing this with the District Collector for the last two years,” said Shivanath Kowdi, secretary of Kannada Sangha, Kochi. And this has truly paid off, if the crowd that thronged the Marine Drive Grounds during these six days was any indication.

“We were anxious about the results initially. We never thought traditional Malayali would go for new food,” said Mr. Kowdi. His fears were set to rest soon after the festival took off.

During the whole festival, the participants — there were 14 counters offering different tastes — interacted a lot between them. “This could be a good beginning, as different communities can continue meeting each other even after the festival,” said Shrenik J. Shah, president of the Ernakulam Gujarati Samaj. Flavours offered in the festival included Punjabi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Tulu, Portuguese and Anglo-Indian, Bengali, Oriya, Gujarati and Konkani.

Some of the participants went all out to bring the true flavours to the festival. Like Bunty Singh who brought in five cooks from Amritsar to prepare the real Punjabi flavour at his Bunty Singh da Dhaba. “We have five to six customers who visited our counter every day of the festival,” said Mr. Singh.

The festival was an assertion of the sub-national identities, even though these communities have merged with the society here. “This festival will be singularly responsible for bringing these communities to the mainstream. That was exactly why we ensured that the cultural programmes presented during the festival featured anything other than those belonging to these communities,” said Mr. Hanish.

Response given by the city to the first attempt at showcasing different tastes of the country shows that it is going to be a long journey.

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